1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel lamp device for vehicles. More specifically, the invention relates to an art for arbitrarily changing the direction of irradiation up and down, and right and left.
2. Related Art
Some lamp devices for vehicles, for example, some headlights for automobiles are capable of arbitrarily changing the direction of irradiating light up and down, and right and left.
A device disclosed in a patent document 1 has a lamp unit supported by a bracket which can be tilted right and left, and up and down. Namely, the bracket is tilted right and left by driving an actuator for right-and-left tilting, and is tilted up and down by driving an actuator for up-and-down tilting.
In a lamp device for vehicles disclosed in a patent document 2, the turn in the right-and-left direction and the turn in the up-and-down direction are effected by one actuator.
In a lamp device for vehicles disclosed in a patent document 3, the turn in the right-and-left direction and the turn in the up-and-down direction are also effected by one actuator.
[Patent document 1] JP-A-2005-119463
[Patent document 2] JP-A-2005-186731
[Patent document 3] JP-A-2003-54310
In the lamp device for vehicles disclosed in the above patent document 1, however, the actuator for tilting the bracket right and left is separate from the actuator for up-and-down tilting, which, therefore, requires an increased number of parts and an increased number of assembling steps, as well as an increased number of harnesses for feeding power to the actuators and for controlling them, causing an increase in the cost. Further, the actuators cannot be used in common for the right and left light devices, which also increases the cost.
According to the lamp device for vehicles disclosed in the above patent document 2, the linking point of the actuator to the bracket for right-and-left tilting is away from the linking point thereof to the bracket for up-and-down tilting and their positional relations are fixed without offering general applicability. Therefore, brackets are necessary that are exclusively designed for the actuators. Further, dedicated actuators are necessary for the right and left lamp devices.
In the lamp device for vehicles disclosed in the patent document 3, the actuator has only one output portion, and the actuator can be used in common for the right and left lamp devices. However, it is not able to effect the tilting in the right-and-left direction simultaneously with the tilting in the up-and-down direction.